STAR SELECTION
We have a whole host of Hollywood stars and big names on Movies 24. Now's your chance to find out a bit more about them in our Star Selection.
SALMA HAYEK
This beautiful Mexican actress became an overnight sensation in her native country at the age of 23 when she took the title role in soap-opera Teresa in 1989. As a struggling actress she appeared on a late night talk show to discuss the difficulty of finding acting work in Hollywood and as fate would have it film director Robert Rodriguez was watching.
He was so impressed with Hayek that he cast her in two of his films. In Desperado (1995) she played a sultry bookshop owner who helped Antonio Banderas’ gun totting mariachi take down the local crime-boss. But it was her brief appearance as a stunning table-dancing vampire in cult hit From Dusk till Dawn (1996) that really made the lasting impression.
She has since starred in several other commercially and critically successful films including The Faculty, Dogma, 54 and Once Upon a Time in Mexico. But in recent years she has focused on more personal films, in front of and behind the camera. In the Time of Butterflies (2001) gave Hayek the chance to produce a film for the first time. She also starred in this tragic true-story about a woman who seeks vengeance after her sisters are murdered by the Dominican Republic dictatorship.
This paved the way for her to produce and star in Frida (2002), a film about the life of iconic Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. This film brought Hayek not only critical success, but also a Best Actress Oscar© nomination. This success allowed her the freedom to direct her first film, The Maldonado Miracle, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award. More recently Hayek’s production company, Ventanarosa, was responsible for producing the hit series Ugly Betty.
• Her father was a Lebanese-Mexican businessman and her mother was a famous Mexican opera singer.
• Is very close friends with fellow actress Penelope Cruz. They starred in the 2006 film Bandidas together.
• The diminutive actress is five-foot-two-inches tall.
• As a child she was a very keen gymnast and almost joined the Mexican gymnastic team.
• She is the godmother of director Robert Rodriguez’s children.
• Dated Edward Norton between 1999 and 2003.
• She had an un-credited performance in Traffic.
• She is credited as a performer on the soundtracks for Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Desperado, 54 and Frida.
• She is a spokeswoman for the Avon cosmetics company.
• Engaged to businessman Francois-Hernri Pinault, who is also the father of her daughter, Velentina Paloma Pinault, born the summer of 2007.
Movies 24 films that Salma Hayek stars or directs in
In The Times of Butterflies
The Maldonado Miracle
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